Nobody Thinks It’s A Real Recovery In California
USA Today reports from California. “Ramona Garcia of Corona, Calif., says she did everything she could to ease the effects of her foreclosure on her young children. Garcia and her husband, Dominic, both real estate agents, saw their business crash as the local housing market toppled. The family struggled to pay their mortgage and moved to a rental after losing their home to foreclosure in November.”
“In March, Ramona began selling jewelry as a sales rep for a company that she says gave her flexible hours so she could lend her girls some sense of security during a wrenching time for the family. Dominic found a job as a site-acquisition rep for cellphone companies.”
“The new job ‘lifted my spirits and gave me a sense of contributing again,’ Ramona says. ‘I was really focused on keeping the transition as smooth as possible for the children. We didn’t even tell them we were moving until we were really close. We knew it wasn’t going to be easy going from a big home with a pool to a smaller home.’”
From CNN Living. “Tabloid magazines like to reassure us that celebrities are just like us. These days, that can also hold true when it comes to the plummeting real estate market.”
“Property values can be a matter of perspective, says Ed Kaminsky, a Manhattan Beach, California-based real estate agent who helps professional athletes relocate.”
“‘You’ve got the new guys with the big contracts that are excited about the $8 million check they just got and they want to spend some, and I’d say rightfully so. Sometimes it’s not a smart investment and sometimes it is,’ he said. ‘But if you make $8 million a year and you blow $5 million on a house and you sell it for $3 million a few years later, is it really wrong?’”
From AFP News. “Every night at dusk in this wealthy California coastal town, Barbara Harvey puts down food for her golden retrievers. Not long afterwards, the 66-year-old mother-of-three clambers into the back of her white Honda CR-V, pulls up a blanket, and beds down for the night, snuggling next to her beloved dogs for comfort.”
“When Harvey’s job as a 37,000-dollar-a-year notary evaporated in the US sub-prime mortgage crisis, she found herself penniless and destitute in a town where the average price of a home is one million dollars. Harvey’s nightly ‘home’ now is the quiet carpark of the historic Santa Barbara Mission.”
“New Beginnings has received a flood of donations from all over the United States as a result of the publicity surrounding Harvey’s case, evidence perhaps that her story has struck a chord in difficult times, says executive director Gary Linker.”
“‘She could be anybody in this country who is essentially one paycheck away from losing their home,’ Linker said.”
“Guy Trevor, a 53-year-old British-born interior designer who lost his home and his job in the mortgage crisis, says he spent three months living in a pick-up truck before entering the parking scheme.”
“‘The real difference is you’re not sneaking around any more,’ Trevor said. ‘You feel safe. It’s nice to feel safe.’”
The Tribune. “About a week after investors and developers forced Paso Robles lender Estate Financial Inc. into an involuntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization, the firm’s leaders resigned after voluntarily putting its separate mortgage fund into bankruptcy protection.”
“The mortgage fund-which pooled investor money to make high-interest loans to real estate developers-represents an estimated $150 million of assets in Estate Financial’s books. However, the vast majority of those assets are in nonperforming loans, those that are in or close to default.”
“‘Whatever anybody says, this is mostly about losses caused by a lousy real estate market,’ said Bill Beall, a Santa Barbara attorney and adviser to the firm. ‘It’s really about a lot of borrowers who don’t make payments because the real estate market is in trouble.’”
The Press Enterprise. “Home sales are rebounding far more quickly in California than nationally, driven by a more dramatic decline in home prices, an economist for the California Association of Realtors said Tuesday.
“Since October, California home sales have been fueled by price declines as much as five times greater than the rest of the nation, Robert Kleinhenz said. In May, the median price of an existing home in Riverside and San Bernardino counties was $257,660, down almost 38 percent from the June 2007 peak of $417,160.”
“Even if home sales continue to rise in California, ‘nobody thinks it is a real recovery until prices stabilize or start to go up,’ he said.”
“Lake Elsinore will explore using a water truck to nourish the browned front lawns of repossessed and abandoned homes as the city continues efforts to eradicate blight caused by the foreclosure crisis. City staff has registered 58 of the more than 1,000 foreclosed properties in the city limits since May, when the ordinance went into effect.”
“To date the city has identified owners of 415 of the city’s 1,100 foreclosed properties and registered 58 homes, issued 40 notices of violations and 15 citations. The biggest obstacle, City Code Enforcement Manager Robin Chipman said, is identifying the property owners, as a home may change hands several times during the foreclosure process.”
“Chipman said the city’s initial goal is to register at least half of the foreclosed properties. Murrieta, according to the report, has identified 500 properties and registered 250 of them.”
“‘I’m not sure that is a realistic goal,’ Chipman said.”
The Daily Bulletin. “Remember when you had to prove your income to get a home mortgage? It was standard practice before the subprime housing debacle made a mess of the real estate market nationwide. Now those policies are about to become federal law.”
“Caroline Urso, a Countrywide Financial loan officer based in Redlands, said the new rules are a good thing.”
“‘Instead of getting borrowers calling you and screaming at you because you won’t qualify them, now they’ll understand it’s the law,’ she said. ‘Before, they’d go across town to someone who would falsify W2s and pay stubs.’”
The Sacramento Bee. “Fresh fears that the loan market may tighten more haven’t yet affected a region where home sales have climbed rapidly in recent weeks. That’s because home loan rules have already tightened so much during the past year.”
“‘I’ve been doing this for 36 years. This is the most difficult time I’ve ever experienced with underwriting,’ said Michael McGee, president of Winchester McGee Financial in Rancho Cordova. ‘I would venture to say in the next two or three years you will see the lowest foreclosure rate this country has ever seen because you just have to be solid gold to get a loan.’”
“The uncertainty involving market leaders created the latest set of jitters for real estate markets - including Sacramento’s - that can best be described as fragile. Though year-over-year sales have risen for the first time in 36 months in the area, still more restrictions and fewer loans have the potential to curb the supply of buyers and stall a recovery, brokers said.”
“McGee said his firm is already rejecting one in three loan applicants under the current lending rules.”
“Brokers said the recent boost in home sales locally is largely due to borrowers with good credit and the ability to put money down. But they said they’re hearing that mortgage insurers may start requiring 10 percent down payments instead of 5 percent in so-called ‘declining markets’ like Sacramento.”
“Mortgage consultant Beth Gewerth in Sacramento said the economic system will somehow keep the loans coming. ‘As we all know, housing drives the economy,’ she said. ‘They can’t get too exotic. But they have to keep things going so people can purchase homes and keep it going.’”
The San Francisco Chronicle. “In California, every property going through foreclosure is auctioned on county courthouse steps, generally for the amount owed on the mortgage, plus fees. Those auctions are all cash, don’t guarantee title and don’t give a chance to inspect.”
“A whopping 97.3 percent of properties at those auctions revert to the lender, according to Sean O’Toole, founder of ForeclosureRadar.”
“‘It takes a certain breed of borrower to buy a foreclosure,’ said Joe Metz, a Realtor in Fremont. ‘I hold a lot of REOs open on weekends. I can tell if a buyer is new to the whole thing; they just get really upset with the condition of the house.’”
“That’s because banks don’t do more than a very basic clean-out of foreclosed properties. They don’t paint. They don’t replace carpets. They don’t remodel.”
“Banks usually determine an asking price after hiring several real estate agents to give opinions about a property’s value. It’s important to remember that banks, and the people who work for them, are skilled at analyzing prices and market conditions.”
“‘Banks are getting very aggressive on pricing,’ said Realtor Glen Bell. ‘We’re seeing them priced at 10 percent to 15 percent less than non-REO properties. Reducing prices to attractive levels has become their strategy … to unload assets.’”
“‘Our experience is the bank has a number (the asking price); they will hold that for a while,’ Metz said. ‘”If they don’t get that number for three or four weeks, they will lower the price a little more. Banks are very smart about how they do this. They move them very quickly and for about as much as anybody could get.’”
The Bakersfield Californian. “A 10th housing development has defaulted in Wasco, the city of 24,300 - including a state prison population of nearly 6,000 - that touts itself as the ‘rose capital of the nation.’ Nine other residential sites in Wasco have defaulted or foreclosed since the beginning of the year. The San Diego-area developer behind the tract was late on more than $1.5 million in payments as of July 7, the filing indicated.”
“Eddie Aguilar, one of nine or so homeowners in the tract, property records show, said the house he bought at auction in November has given him major trouble. A cracked ceiling, unraveling rug, water-spewing shower and other problems have gone unfixed despite dozens of calls, he said. The company did fix a cracked countertop, he said.”
“The lights in his house also blink. ‘If you ever walked into a disco - it’s like that,’ he said.”
“The house came with a one-year warranty provided by the builder, he said. He estimates he has tried to call about 150 times for fixes, but so far only the countertop has been a go. He estimates about 15 of the tract’s 48 lots have completed houses, including several model units. Tall weeds grow on many of the empty lots, he said.”
“Aguilar bought the 1,484-square-foot Bettis Avenue home through Pacific Auction Exchange Inc. for about $180,000. With its current problems he’s afraid he’d get $40,000 to $50,000 less than he paid, if he could sell it at all.”
“‘I sold a beautiful home I loved to be here,’ said Aguilar.”
“Banks are very smart about how they do this” says realtor Joe Metz, about banks selling foreclosed homes.
I’m sure the banks are run by financial geniuses, the same brains that loaned on the homes to begin with.
forced to move and say goodbye to friends, leaving behind schools and teachers
Where are they all going? Can’t they just go back to renting nearby, just like before they bought the house they couldn’t afford?
“Banks are very smart about how they do this” says realtor Joe Metz, about banks selling foreclosed homes.
I’m sure the banks are run by financial geniuses, the same brains that loaned on the homes to begin with.
There are potentially smarter and dumber ways of liquidating the inventory. For example, they might be selling:
- First into foreclosure, first for sale
- Hardest to sell listed first
- Lower price areas listed first
- Lower price than so-called comps on the market
I’m not sure which strategy would minimize the losses–or if that’s even possible to determine with an unknown number of loans yet to fail. I’d bet some lenders were/are holding the “creampuff” foreclosures until the market recovers. Too bad it won’t recover…
“A whopping 97.3 percent of properties at those auctions revert to the lender, according to Sean O’Toole, founder of ForeclosureRadar.”
If banks are so smart about pricing homes, then how come they are catching a falling knife in 97.3 percent of foreclosure auctions. Is it that hard to figure out a wishing price at which a foreclosed home will move before becoming an albatross hanging from the asset column of the bank’s balance sheet?
As I’ve mentioned, locally the lenders are so swamped they can’t even foreclose. They just postpone the thing over and over.
But this brings up something; have any CA HBBers gone to the trustee sales? It would be great to hear what is actually happening. I figured out a lot with just a couple of trips. My broker friend from OC still has a contact there that says it’s a tsunami at the courthouse steps.
Ben, I will pay gas money to go to one of those auctions in OC. Tell your contact I am with the pressclub and I’ll shoot the pain and take notes. Ok?
Ouro,
I was able to come up with a couple more names. I posted in Bits Buckets.
I also suggested you post your request for names here in the California Bucket.
Hopefully the No. CA contingent can supply the missing names.
http://s292.photobucket.com/albums/mm1/anngogh/
We are a classy group of readers.
Who is in pic #5?
Send me your photos of housing areas and yourselves so I will add them to this site. Here are new SF photos with captions.
http://s292.photobucket.com/albums/mm1/anngogh/?albumview=slideshow
Annmoorman@attdotnet
PB, I posted down at the bottom and did not see your comment:
Banks are required to bid the amount they are owned. They cannot bid $1, win the auction and go after the borrower for the remaining $99.
What Mr. O’Tooles report suggests is either there are some incredible suckers still in existence (my belief) or there are people going into foreclosure with substantial equity.
At the auction I went to Monday the lender was owed $800k and the asking was $700k. If you have a link or something about this requirement I’d like to see it.
“…In the United States, there are two types of foreclosure in most common law states. Using a “deed in lieu of foreclosure,” or “strict foreclosure”, the noteholder claims the title and possession of the property back in full satisfaction of a debt, usually on contract. In the proceeding simply known as foreclosure (or, perhaps, distinguished as “judicial foreclosure”), the property is subject to auction by the county sheriff or some other officer of the court. Many states require this sort of proceeding in some or all cases of foreclosure, in order to protect any equity the debtor may have in the property, in case the value of the debt being foreclosed on is substantially less than the market value of the immovable property (this also discourages strategic foreclosure). In this foreclosure, the sheriff then issues a deed to the winning bidder at auction. Banks and other institutional lenders may bid in the amount of the owed debt at the sale but there are a number of other factors that may influence the bid, and if no other buyers step forward the lender receives title to the immovable property in return.”
Wikipedia
The operative phrase “…in order to protect any equity the debtor may have in the property…” - debtors have gotten off with a lot of moneys from banks failing to bid the debt.
I will get you the legal sources shortly and post links. There was a recent foreclosure in which the lender was the only buyer and bought the property for $1 and subsequently sold the property for 150K, the borrower owed 100K. When the bank went after the borrower for the deficient 100K, the court ruled the loan was worth $1.00, the debtor ended up with 150K less the $1 the lender paid for the property. I know nothing about possible tax consequences.
http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/displaycode?section=civ&group=02001-03000&file=2920-2944.5
CIVIL CODE
SECTION 2920-2944.5 (California)
2924j, k & l - deals with dispersal of funds from foreclosure sales.
Unless the lender abandons the home - a current possibility, the risk is to great, protect the stupid. (Separate rules for lender abandoned homes).
smart buyers/waiters will set market prices for a change.
What? You won’t give it away?
Ok. Let it blister and atrophy in the sun while the meth freaks go wild with the cathedral room.
Here’s a dime.
Call me in ten.
$5 Million minus $3 Million = $2 Million worth of wrong.
_______________________________________________________________
“Property values can be a matter of perspective, says Ed Kaminsky, a Manhattan Beach, California-based real estate agent who helps professional athletes relocate.”
“‘You’ve got the new guys with the big contracts that are excited about the $8 million check they just got and they want to spend some, and I’d say rightfully so. Sometimes it’s not a smart investment and sometimes it is,’ he said. ‘But if you make $8 million a year and you blow $5 million on a house and you sell it for $3 million a few years later, is it really wrong?’”
It might (or might not) be worth be pointing out that if one makes $8 million, they are not going to have $5 million left to spend on a house.
The taxman wants his share first.
“It might (or might not) be worth be pointing out that if one makes $8 million, they are not going to have $5 million left to spend on a house.”
Exactly. After taxes, they’ve now lost one third to one half of what’s left. There’s also a very small window in which most will be able to make that much money. One could live very well for a long time if that money’s invested properly. But you can’t be flushing it away in $2M chunks on bad real estate deals.
Ed Kaminsky is a putz. He is building a 7,000 sq ft mcmansion in a neighborhood of 2,000 sq ft houses. Screw him.
Yeah, what is wrong with blowing 5-M (what is that, 150-K comission for him) on a pos house if lame ass manhattan beach.
Give the guy a break ! 6% of five mil on the way up and 6% on the way down of three mil aint bad G.I. That’s the game played by the realtwhores. nes pas ??? hehehehehehehe
Might not be wrong, but it’s pretty f*ckin’ stupid.
I just don’t understand what you get in an 8 million dollar house that you don’t get in a 1 million dollar house. If you’re making a ton of money, why not just buy a 1 million dollar house outright? to hear that millionare athletes and celebrities are in debt up to their eyes is just disgusting.
“‘I was really focused on keeping the transition as smooth as possible for the children. We didn’t even tell them we were moving until we were really close. We knew it wasn’t going to be easy going from a big home with a pool to a smaller home.’”
Gee, I don’t know - is she really sure she’s doing all she can?
I personally think daily psychiatric visits, weekend therapy trips to the zoo and possibly medication (thorazine?) might help her children cope with the trauma they’ve suffered going from a “big home with a pool to a smaller home.”
And I wonder why we’re a nation of wimps!
But her precious little snowflakes must be protected from the grim realities of life ! The horror of having to use a public pool, my god !
Oh, for goodness sakes. There’s a public pool in the park near here. I have yet to see an unhappy face in that place.
“But her precious little snowflakes…”
Ha!
And what is it with the younger Boomers and older Gen-Xer’s, usually mothers, who come up with these “fanciful” sounding nicknames for their offspring?
At one time, a long time ago, it was an usual and perhaps interesting / amusing thing.
Now, unfortunately, it just reminds me of the spoiled and entitled attitude which is prevalent in some in our country.
Or the sprinklers ..oh my gawd. Or sitting in a wading pool. Just to cool off.
HOW did we actually grow up unscathed?
Slip and slides are making a come back.
It worked in our famiy and dad was a doctor.
When I was a kid, one of the other kids jumped on the Slip ‘n’ Slide, but there was a sharp rock under it, and the rock sliced into one of the kid’s blood vessels, and there was more blood on that Slip ‘n’ Slide than I thought could have ever been in that kid’s entire body. Just a memory, for kicks.
Remember that crazy plastic orange-faced garden hose attachment with black rope hair, where you turned on the water and it jumped all around in the air and sprayed you. Was it called a Wiggle Worm? They’d never allow these days, might poke an eye out or whatever other personal injury you could sue the company for.
Water wiggle
Man, those gave more than a few a black eye and loose teeth in the neighborhood.
Suzy was on Oprah and she told this pathetic family to sell the house, move out of california and head for seattle because the mortgage market is still hot!
Wife is a shopaholic and pretty. I thought suzy was going to suggest a stripper pole job. Suzy said first work at starbucks then go back to process loans.
Poor Dad, six kids and no health insurance. Suzy told mom to get life insurance on Dad.
Wow. Did she really say to get life insurance on the dad? Did she give the mom Guido’s phone number as well? Guido is good at his job. Slips and falls are his specialties.
That lady was a dumb box of rocks and way past her expiration date.
If she was going to work as a stripper, it had better be a dark, very dark club…
See, that’s why goverment must do something to stop this wave of foreclosures. It’s “for the children”.
Can’t we just eat the foreclosure children? Then we wouldn’t need a bailout anymore.
Swift would be so proud of you
that’s what i was thinking
What bailout? The loan insurance only gets used for defaults from the special subset of homeowners they set up. There was a time when you didn’t see the bubble. Are these people so much better off for having made their move in ignorance? And why were these people given a bogus loan in the first place? It seems like everyone is getting burned at some level.
lmao!
Everytime a lender forecloses, Baby Jebus cries…
Chardonnay, meet computer screen. Thanks NoSingleOne!
I’m not sure what she’s saying is so wrong. Moving can be traumatic for kids and at least she’s aware and trying to do the right thing. At least she’s not whining about being a victim and teaching the kids to blame everyone else. They both got new jobs and she’s trying to take care of her kids. I must be missing something here because I don’t get why some are so offended by this.
If I were her, I probably would have been more honest about it is all. I think her kids could have dealt with it better had they known the truth all along. Now they are shocked and have to move right away, with no adjustment period.
Big V oh wise one. I think it depends on the kids’ ages. For the little ones it’s better to sugar coat it, I think. Insecure kids make crazy, needy adults. We came away unscathed because we were told “you can do it, you can make it if you try,” or what some of us heard: “stop, whining, get off your butt and get it done.” Now, kids are told that the parents will fix it, they will take care of it, they will make it happen. So, even though they think they’re indulging their kids, they’re leaving them with the knowledge that they have to be taken care of. UGH. We have parents now that are communicating with their kids’ professors at college trying to fix grades. How are kids going to ever learn how to even judge what’s going on with the financial world
“Lake Elsinore will explore using a water truck to nourish the browned front lawns of repossessed and abandoned homes
THIS is what irritates me. Just mow the brown stuff down, spray it green and move on. Don’t waste the water on dead stuff cause it is going to be an ongoing thing.
Stop wasting the water.
Spray it green. Once. Done. No more blight. well…..
Or hire a sheepherder to tend to the neighborhood.
What kind of spray paint do you use?
I don’t knwo what kind of paint, but the last drought someone on tv said, neighbors were spraying their yards if they weren’t green enough.
Then I thought that was weird, now Elsinor must not water.
So now you water it and grow grass and weeds, how big does the greenery grow before someone has to mow it down. Gee, great plan there councilmen, who’s relative is driving the water truck and gardening service?
there is a law in the central valley that says dirt roads must be watered to keep “suspended particulates” out of our nostrils. That doesn’t leave much water for distressed houses.
In the good old days they sprayed the dirt roads with used motor oil. Or maybe it was the PCB laden stuff they used in transformers. I suppose they can’t do that now due to environmental concerns.
I’m the opposite…why the consternation? I was raised as a military brat and had to move virtually every two years until I reached college. Somehow, I managed to survive and not turn into a serial killer.
Admittedly, I’m not a very sensitive male. However, have we become such a nation of wimps that any potential psychological trauma to a child gets paraded around by the media becomes justification for national sympathy, consolation prizes, or…a bailout?
If having to move to a smaller house is the worst thing that happens to these kids in life, I consider them lucky.
DoD has the best system for integrating new kids into the classroom–because the military has so many kids whose parents move every two years. But it’s a very structured program that isn’t replicated in the local public schools.
My sil moved almost every year until college. He’s fairly well adjusted–he just says “yes, dear” when my daughter threatens to set him on fire. He is currently working on his PhD in history.
Moving is only “traumatic” when the parents make it “traumatic.”
‘Hey guys - guess what! Daddy and I picked out a new house for us to move into! It won’t cost as much as this one and we won’t have to worry anymore about paying the bills! Isn’t that great news?! Now, let’s go visit and check out your new rooms!’
Simple.
Parents in this country RUIN their children. Pussy wimps raising another generation of pussy wimps. You wait until the Greater Depression really starts rolling - these people will curl into the fetal position, let out one last whimper for their mommies, and DIE.
Amen to that, just market it differently and stop whining, stop the future whining!
They are children, not ticking timebombs!
They cope quite well really. It’s called resilience though I’d hardly call moving to a new house with the family intact a catastrophic event.
Yo Ramona,
“Lower your expectations”….. Charlie Munger
“‘I sold a beautiful home I loved to be here,’ said Aguilar.”
Boo Farkin Hoo. How much money did you make off the old home you just loved so much ?
I wonder how many millions of taxpayer dollars were spent to reach this shocking discovery:
Another study found that working families that spend more than half their income on housing have less money available than other families to pay for health care and other crucial needs, according to a July 2007 report by the Center for Housing Policy in Washington.
A more important question is, how do I get a job at the Center for Housing Policy in Washington and collect some of these millions?
As of today I’ve got a new record high number of NOD for June in Palmdale 93552. I think we may be seeing a new paradigm, a permanently high plateau of walkaway FB deadbeats!
At 345 (+4% MOM) for the month we sit at easily 6 NOD per sale. No bottom in sight here. I can’t wait to see the DQ numbers in the next couple weeks!
‘Nine other residential sites in Wasco have defaulted or foreclosed since the beginning of the year. ‘
Yes, there is money to be made in Bakersfield picking up the pieces. But only if a person does some research, takes some risks, etc. Some would probably rather sit around whining about make-believe bail-outs that actually make a move.
Wasco is kind of “Green Acres” with a prison, for those of you in need of a visual…
It looks as if Mr. Haney is the Realtor, there.
The developer in default, Innovative Resorts, also owns a ton of land in Bullhead City and Yuma. So he has that going for him.
Thanks. That’s good to know.
Was Co.
hehe
It looks as if Mr. Haney is the Realtor, there.
That’s Mr. Humberto Haney to you
You’d make Nabakov proud.
In my youth I sold subscriptions to the LA Times in Wasco. Walking around that crapburg of a town in 109 degree heat, being chased by dogs (and occasionally getting caught by them), yeah, that town deserves everything it’s getting. I call it the Land of C.H.U.D.
I feel your pain.
6-12 more months and you will find some real bargins…there are close to 5,000 homes that have been foreclosed that are NOT on the MLS for sale…once that tsunami hits, look out BELOW!
“make-believe bail-outs that actually make a move”
Ugh. I have been ribbing you for a while on the FNM & FRE issue…
Ben,
“Yes, there is money to be made in Bakersfield picking up the pieces. But only if a person does some research, takes some risks, etc. ”
I lived and worked in BK fro 1973 to 2004 and I don’t think that there will be that many ‘pieces’ to pick up. I liked raising a family there but I don’t see the income levels supporting much until a 300K house drops to 100K and I don’t mean something down cottonwood row or the east side of town or old Oildale. Over the last couple of years you had a lot of commuters from LA and the Bay area but those and the construction people will be moving on elsewhere.
“Caroline Urso, a Countrywide Financial loan officer based in Redlands, said the new rules are a good thing.”
“‘Instead of getting borrowers calling you and screaming at you because you won’t qualify them, now they’ll understand it’s the law,’ she said. ‘Before, they’d go across town to someone who would falsify W2s and pay stubs.’”
So, Caroline, you knew this was going on before, and you did not say anything to the authorities at that time? Hmmm. Did your manager know about this too?
You should have kept your mouth shut about this, but you wanted your 15 minutes didn’t you?
Caroline doesn’t realize that if we truly go back to”traditional” lending standards she, and others of her ilk, will be permanently out of a job…..
Neil Diamond was so inspired by her story, he re-wrote this song just for her…
Redlands it began
Borrrowers begin to callin’
But she knows they have to qualify
Was in the rules
and rules became the law
Who’d have believed you’d follow along
Lies, tellin’ lies
Screamin’ loud
Falsifyin’ pay stubs
Falsifyin’ W2’s
Sweet Caroline
Breaking the law never felt so good
I’ve been inclined
To believe she always would
“Don’t be stupid! Wait until Spring!
The mountains in the Winter are a treacherous thing!
Just look at these fools, they think they can make it!
It’ll be twenty below, and they say they can take it!
What a bunch of stupid mother…”
LOL friar john.
Sweet Caroline was one of my favorite 45s. I played that song so often it was amazing I didn’t wear the record out.
It’s time to stop children whats that sign?
everybody look whats falling down.
Hey hey hey.
Ode to Glen Campbell…
By the time I get to Phoenix, foreclosures will be rising
They’ll find the N.O.D. note on her door
She’ll laugh when she reads the part about leaving
‘Cause I’ve heard this story so many times before
By the time the news reaches Albuquerque, the market stopped working
A Realtor will beg me @ lunch, to give me a call
But i’ll just hear that phone keep on ringin’
Off the wall that’s all
By the time the housing bubble falls in Oklahoma, rather steeply
It’ll turn swiftly and a Realtor will call my name out loud
Tho’ time and time I try to avoid him so
He just didn’t know, how low it could really go
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGc65xIR7T0&feature=related
Funny how RE agents have learned to refer to buyers as “borrowers”. Is the RE agent selling a house or a loan? Maybe he knows that the buyer will probably end up in foreclosure, and is hence only really borrowing the house.
comedy!
I hear about all these rapid declines everywhere else, but why are all the houses around me in Danville, San Ramon, Alamo and Walnut Creek still in the “nose-bleed” zone? Is everywhere there wealthy? Who has a family income of over $300k to buy all these “million-dollar” homes? It really confuses me since I just moved here! Also, how do they afford the $100k and up down payments since money down is now required and income documentation. When are the prices here going to come into reality? The people around here don’t look rich - they look broke and in debt! Are the banks still lending to them? I about VOMIT when I get the listings from Ziprealty and all are between $1mil and $3mil. WHERE’S THE MONEY COMING FROM?
I am seeing the same happening in Cupertino. I hear about all the other major drops in California, but why not here? What the hell is going on? How many people work for Google around here?
screw Cupertino. that place would be all lower middle-class houses anywhere else in the nation.
SiliValley isn’t that nice a place to live unless you’re rich, with the choking traffic and the bland work-til-you-drop culture.
test
Hey - have patience!
You know what’s going on…
Just go look at the median family incomes for those places and compare it to local median house prices.
10x? 8x? What’s the ratio? Whatever it is, it won’t last forever.
I don’t think it will reach 3x, but perhaps 5x or 6x.
It just takes more time where the Kool-Aid is thickest and the dreams of sellers are ignoring reality.
it is more than just denial. many of these folks are still paying on their interest-only ARMs that have not yet re-set. the prices are sticky.
You got it on the nose! These Million dollar homes is on ah..hem “borrowed” time. Let’s put a couple of foreclosures here and there and the comps go way down. Lending practices are tightening so we’ll see some desperation soon.
It will be 3-4x, IMO. Historically, during nonbubble times, it’s 4-5x in California, so it should go lower when this bomb has finished its destruction.
If your area is anything like the situation here in 90402, the wishing prices are still high, but almost nothing is selling. Unless you know that houses in your area are actually selling, then answer to your question may be” “From Nowhere”.
Im looking in that area as well, prices have come down about 20% from the peak believe it or not. A lot of these places are Alt-A/neg-am not technically subprimes, so the loans should be resetting between now and 2010. REO are being sold at about 250/sqft in San Ramon, which is relatively reasonable for the area, look for a bottom in the 175-200/sqft range. The median household income in the area is about 130K I think last I checked.
EastBayRenter,
Prices will come down. It will take some time. I’m already seeing prices on the Peninsula below 500,000. Danville, San Ramon, and Alamo have always been a high priced area to live. They will have price drops also.
Hi EastBayRenter:
I have to admit that I’m getting annoyed by all the people posting on here with claims that their own neighborhoods are not declining. The areas you just mentioned are all in serious free-fall, especially San Ramon and Danville. to find out.
Cool!! Thanks! I won’t be happy until I’m seeing 2,000 sq. ft. going in the $500k or less range! Now everything is at least $800k or much more… I’m thinking we are at least 2 years out… Patience is a virtue they say!
If you look hard there are a few 3000 sqft in the high 700Ks right now, I know Windemere has the 4000sqft in 900K, and 3000 sqft in the low 800s. The most important stat I got from that link above was the median time in residence was 3.5 years. That means that at least half the “homeowners” in the area are likely to get a nice surprise in the upcoming months.
Speaking of vomit, this stock market and bank collapse gave me acid reflux today, totally unexpected.
What is acid reflux?
Today’s SM drop must have been serious, because I noticed that Yahoo!’s top story was one about JonBenet; their attempt to divert J6P’s attention from the inpending economic collapse.
Acid reflux= A flowing of dollars from your wallet to some mopes wallet.
“Guy Trevor, a 53-year-old British-born interior designer who lost his home and his job in the mortgage crisis, says he spent three months living in a pick-up truck before entering the parking scheme.”
“‘The real difference is you’re not sneaking around any more,’ Trevor said. ‘You feel safe. It’s nice to feel safe.’”
_______________________________________________________________
One sure-fire way to tell newcomers to the homeless game, vs. cagey veterans of the street, is by the tan.
Longterm homeless people tend to emulate Mozilo, as they are always outdoors and in the sun.
I’ve seen some that would give George Hamilton a run for his money…
I usually go by the facial hair growth. Beard trimmers are hard to come by on the streets and even if you find one, you can’t find anywhere to charge it.
Maybe it’s time to bring back drive-in movies. For one price you get both a movie and a place to sleep.
(I’m joking, but only slightly.)
Didn’t watch the movie or sleep.
Busy steaming up the windows, perhaps?
John Anderson has choice song called Steamy Windows.
“I would venture to say in the next two or three years you will see the lowest foreclosure rate this country has ever seen because you just have to be solid gold to get a loan.”
This along with a slowing economy. The pool of buyers sure will be small.
Whoever is buying now is going to be sorry. Prices may drop alotta % in the next year.
“Guy Trevor, a 53-year-old British-born interior designer who lost his home and his job in the mortgage crisis, says he spent three months living in a pick-up truck before entering the parking scheme.”
“‘The real difference is you’re not sneaking around any more,’ Trevor said. ‘You feel safe. It’s nice to feel safe.’”
Just as the stigma of foreclosure is rapidly becoming something many aren’t embarrassed to disclose, it looks like the next wave is homelessness. If only admitting to being a former realtor is countercurrent to this trend….
I read the article, and it seems to me that at least some of these people are what I would call “voluntary homeless”. Where are they getting the money to keep their vehicles on the roads, and to feed their hungry golden retrievers?
Unless they also owe more on their vehicle than it’s worth, these strike me as educated people that have options, just not the one that they want. There are plenty of locales in the US where rent is cheap and there is still good work to be had. Get on to one of these places, rent an apt. near public transportation, sell your vehicle to generate some $$$ for security deposit and some basics, get whatever work you can find and get back in the hunt.
Methinks they just can’t handle the thought of leaving the beach.
remember her daughter wants her to move in with her.
But who wants to leave Santa BOO HOO?
“Former software engineer and dotcom CEO, Jess Jessop, 54, has lived with his two sons in a converted school bus for the past four years, three of them in Santa Barbara.”
This guy has two kids 13 and 12. So basically they were 8 and 9 when they started to live in this converted school bus. Man! that is tough for the kids. You think social services would come in and take them and bring this idiot back to reality. Software Engineer and he can’t get a job? A low end intern Software Engineer could get at least $50K. Get an apartment and start fresh for his boys. The boys in the picture look tired.
It’s tough to read that because I have boys of my own and I’d work at McDonalds (nothing against Micky Ds) for 80 hours to make sure they have a solid roof over their heads.
Put a bumper sticker on the back of your vehicle. ‘If you lived in your car, you’d be home now’. hehehehehehehe
Brokers said the recent boost in home sales locally is largely due to borrowers with good credit and the ability to put money down. But they said they’re hearing that mortgage insurers may start requiring 10 percent down payments instead of 5 percent in so-called ‘declining markets’ like Sacramento.”
Say it isn’t so. Isn’t this something on the order of $20K? I seriously hope a few mortgage insurers go out of business as they don’t seem to want to grow a pair. Next thing you know they will start doing due diligence on loans and heaven forbid, check to see that the person can actually pay it back. Too bad only the IRS can garnish wages…sure would be interesting if each respective state could garnish wages for unpaid property taxes.
Harvey’s nightly ‘home’ now is the quiet carpark of the historic Santa Barbara Mission.”
So what’s the bad news? Stories like this burn my cookies. Now if this broad were say living in her car in Victorville and washing her undies in the California aqueduct then I might feel a hint of sadness for her.
I keep wondering why this woman doesn’t just move some place affordable but I guess even the homeless in California feel entitled to live in Santa Barbara.
Santa Barbara is a great place to be homeless. nice beaches and fantastic weather. what i don’t get is a homeless person that lives in a cold climate. why don’t they start walking south? all they have is time on their hands…
I’ve always wondered the same thing. Especially when I lived in Chicagoland - I can’t believe there are lifer homeless there at all.
I always wondered why homeless prefer such cold locations. If you think Chicago is bad, try a northern community like Fort St. John or Grande Prairie or Flin Flon.
Wikipedia
Chicago yearly average_ low: 42 high: 60
Grande Prairie yearly average_ low: 25 high: 46
Where are her children during all of this?? She has three of them! They must all be rotten to the core if they know their mother is homeless and yet they don’t let her move in with one of them.
What I find sad is that this woman has 3 children and she is living on the street. I don’t know her personal situation, but I can’t imagine letting my mother live on the street unless she demanded to do so and even then….
Where are her kids, very very sad, I can’t imagine treating my parents like that, but family is very important to us.
If this is the same lady of which we read previously, she refused to move in with her daughter. She just won’t do it. She’s probably just a drama queen, or else she figured she could get a lot of donations by being the first homeless old lady to make it to the front page.
It’s another chapter in her life that she’s certain she’ll get through. Her 19-year-old daughter moved in with friends to avoid being homeless. Her other children live overseas, and she didn’t want to tell them about her living status.
Even if her children offered to help, she said, she wouldn’t accept it. “They know me well enough to know that I will get through this.”
http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/wayoflife/05/19/homeless.mom/index.html
——————
“She’s probably just a drama queen or figured she could get a lot of donations.” kind of harsh . . . .
Non of her children like or will take dogs!
lmao
My one ‘bubble believer’ friend just bought a house in San Diego. He says he knows it will probably go down, but he was getting heavy pressure from the girlfriend. Poor bastard.
30 year fixed..?
i am sure he did. i don’t have the details yet.
‘fixed?’
Yeah, sounds like she cut ‘em off.
GIRLFRIEND? She convinces him to buy a house even though they’re not even married? Jimminy Cricket. If I were her, I would have just gone for some expensive jewelry and maintained my right to break up on a whim.
retained
agreed. impression of the man? reduced.
RE: “‘She could be anybody in this country who is essentially one paycheck away from losing their home,’ Linker said.”
Pfffffftttttttt…The one’s who lose only a house are just pikers.
Here a dude where one capricious whim makes him a potential truck dweller.
From Annie’s Mailbox-Beantown Glob-July 7th
Dear Annie-
2 months ago my wife of 25 years said, “I love you for the 3 kids you’ve given me and the years we’ve had, but I’m not in love with you anymore. All I want is the house.
Then she told me to move out.
I’m a good husband. I have a good job. I’m not abusive. I don’t drink or gamble. I don’t even go out with my buddies. How could she drop a 25 year marriage just like that? She has no interest in giving me a second chance.
What happened to marriage vows? We’ve had our differences like every couple but we’ve always worked thru them. Do think this is temporary and she’ll come to her sense?
Signed-Shell-shocked
Response: Once being a good provider and sober and loving husband was enough. Apparently, it wasn’t enough for your wife. The surprise factor indicated she’d planned to leave for awhile. I don’t know if she’ll change her mind, but don’t put your life on hold.
Get some counseling (LMFAO…guess Annie figures the divorce system as already assigned the house to Doris) and move on.
Yeah, to the back of your pick-up truck.
Hope you have a cap on the back for protection against the bugs and wandering drunks!
I
I’d tell her to go eff herself and if anyone was going to be moving it would be her.
I can’t believe she stuck with him for 25 years. What a bore. Put him out of his misery.
No friends, no drinking, no gambling, no sex life either. Put a bullet in him.
Excuuuuuuuuuse me, but didn’t those vows say,
um,
in good times and bad, sickness and in health etc?
I hear more stories of folks getting divorced during these
‘hard times’. Sheesh.What was it just lust in the beginning and a white dress? I am not against that stuff, but divorce sounds like it was the easy way out for some.
I get the feeling we’re not hearing the whole story here. hd74man is a known woman hater. Besides, why would a woman say “I love you for the 3 kids you gave me”, when it’s obviously the woman who does the kid giving? And where did the truck come in? I think hd74man just made this up. There are typos in it, too.
Oh, and how is being a truck dweller worse than being a car dweller? The only real difference between the two scenarios is that the car dweller is a female, which hd74man can’t stand.
I don’t know big V.
I hear about these kind of things all the time. More often than not we hear from a guy that just bought a house and the lawyer hands you the divorce papers after closing; so your down payment is gone.
First hand info talking amoungst us guys and not just second hand stuff.
We are getting pretty beat down on marriage and california is about the absolute worst on property rights if you are a guy. Not to mention the alimony.
I don’t get why we have to pay alimony at all.
I understand some people are unhappy some of the time, you don’t know what goes on behind closed doors; but the stuff I that seems to come around is just BS.
Yes, I posted about Tom Lykis before but that is just feeding into my own bad experience.
Where I’m at… there just ain’t no sure things in life and women about as unsure as you can get.
Yeah, well, don’t have kids, then. That’s what I keep saying to all the closet homos on this blog. It’s not fair to ask her to take all the risk, make all the sacrafices, and take on 90% of the burden of the kids.
If the woman was his personal assistant, nanny, and maid for 25 years, then she deserves the retirement package. To turn the tables on some of the azzhats that post here, “He should have been a better husband”. Of course, I still think hd74man just made it up. The story just doesn’t really make sense.
“Closet homos” and “woman haters”.
Hmm. You’d hit your Newark, CA roof if someone referred to you in similar terms–e.g. “ballbreaker”.
Miniscule V, from where I stand, it’s you that has the problem.
Annie’s Mailbox is at http://www.creators.com/lifestylefeatures/annies-mailbox/annie-s-mailbox-r-2008-07-07.html
What sacrifices are you talking about? I pay the bills and she stays home and takes care of the the little joy in our life.
Personal assistant? Maid?
Hell, I do about half the house work and all of it that involves shit, bad smells or insects aka the dirty work.
So, if you are talking about assets, you have to split them up and I don’t have questions. Child support, no problem with it.
Alimony is complete crap.
Did you call the kids a burden? Wow.
Geez, you guys surely have a thing against..
Whoooey.
Guess what, there are 2 sides, and I know of quite a few horrid stories that are from the other side.
So, lets cut this out, eh?
Eliza: The life of the wife is ended by the knife
Stewie: I think she’s got it. I think she’s got it
Eliza: The life of the wife is ended by the knife
Stewie: By George she’s got it. By George she’s got it. Now what ends her wretched life?
Eliza: The knife! The knife!
Stewie: And where’s that bloody knife?
Eliza: In the wife! In the wife!
Eliza & Stewie: The life of the wife is ended by the knife
Stewie: Bravo Eliza
Eliza & Stewie: The life of the wife is ended by the knife…
“A whopping 97.3 percent of properties at those auctions revert to the lender, according to Sean O’Toole, founder of ForeclosureRadar.”
2.7% are bought by a non lender is surprisingly high. PT Barnum is once again proven correct.
If Mr. O’Tooles figures are correct, this implies that 2.7% of the housing at foreclosure auctions is in debt for at least 30% below 2005 prices.
A bank will bid the amount that it is owed. Thus the properties become REO.
REOgir Mortis
“About a week after investors and developers forced Paso Robles lender Estate Financial Inc. into an involuntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization, the firm’s leaders resigned after voluntarily putting its separate mortgage fund into bankruptcy protection.”
Not sure I follow. What advantage is there to keeping the mortgage fund separately in bankruptcy protection for an involuntary Chapter 11? Shouldn’t the court get to use its primary asset as a determination of solvency?
Potemkin Village Sod
_______________________________________________________________
“Lake Elsinore will explore using a water truck to nourish the browned front lawns of repossessed and abandoned homes as the city continues efforts to eradicate blight caused by the foreclosure crisis. City staff has registered 58 of the more than 1,000 foreclosed properties in the city limits since May, when the ordinance went into effect.”
“To date the city has identified owners of 415 of the city’s 1,100 foreclosed properties and registered 58 homes, issued 40 notices of violations and 15 citations. The biggest obstacle, City Code Enforcement Manager Robin Chipman said, is identifying the property owners, as a home may change hands several times during the foreclosure process.”
A waste of water and gas, marvelous.
I tried to post the new photos from SF and of course it’s not showing up.
> lights also blink
Easy one, most likely. Common. Fixable. By an electrician.
The big heavy wires that come from the pole to the box on the side of the house are held down inside the box, each by one great big hex screw most likely.
Those screws, while they were tightened down by whoever installed the box (or should have been) will have worked a little bit loose over the first year as they get warm and cold.
An electrician will know how to get the power turned off, NOT just the breakers for the house but the main power — above where the feed comes in — and then tighten the hex screws down tight.
>> “I would venture to say in the next two or three years you will see the lowest foreclosure rate this country has ever seen because you just have to be solid gold to get a loan.”
…before you lose your job.
“When Harvey’s job as a 37,000-dollar-a-year notary evaporated in the US sub-prime mortgage crisis, she found herself penniless and destitute in a town where the average price of a home is one million dollars. Harvey’s nightly ‘home’ now is the quiet carpark of the historic Santa Barbara Mission.”
Harvey is a good candidate for a move to Cleveland!